More particularly, the invention includes a cartoning machine intended to place a bottle in a box automatically. The presently known automatic machines of the type specified above are relatively bulky and are generally designed to function at high speeds, for example greater than 40 strokes per minute. Such machines use complicated mechanisms and they subject both the articles, in particular bottles, and the boxes to constraining motions that can cause scratches on the fragile articles or boxes to be manipulated; this applies particularly to boxes covered with uncoated paint.
Furthermore, when the size of the article changes, machines presently in existence require a relatively long time to be adapted to the new size.